CHAPTER XX. THE RESCUE OF STEVE.

 The border king ran to the edge of the cliff and peered over. He saw that there was a sheer 

 

descent of more than five hundred feet, with no trees or shrubs¹ to break a fall—nothing but a 

 

smooth face of bare rock.

 

Far below, lying upon a heap of fallen bowlders, he could see, through his field glasses, the 

 

body of the Shawnee chief.

 

There could be no doubt that he was dead. Every bone in his body must have been broken by that 

 

fearful fall.

 

Cody promptly² returned to his horse and rode back to the scene of the fight, where his companions 

 

were awaiting him. He briefly³ told them of the fate of Evil Heart and ordered them to mount and 

 

ride back on the trail. He wished to follow the other trail of the larger Indian party without 

 

delay and do what he could to recover the girls.

 

“Wait a moment, Cody,” said Mainwaring, who had distinguished⁴ himself in the fight. “I’ve got 

 

a prisoner here, and I want to know what you are going to do with him.”

 

“A prisoner!” exclaimed Buffalo⁵ Bill, in amazement⁶. “How did you get a chance to take one in 

 

such a fight as this, where quarter is neither asked nor given?”

 

“Here he is,” said Mainwaring, pointing to a young Shawnee, who was sitting upon the ground, 

 

closely guarded by two Pawnees with tomahawks in their hands. “I guess he was a young brave just 

 

out on his first trail. Anyway, he got scared when I had the drop on him. He threw down his 

 

tomahawk and begged for mercy, and I hadn’t the heart to shoot him then.”

 

“A strange thing for an Indian to do,” remarked Buffalo Bill. “Well, it’s a nuisance. I don’

 

t see what we are going to do with him.”

 

“The Pawnees were keen to kill and scalp him,” said Mainwaring. “I had a good deal of trouble 

 

in preventing them.”

 

“I dare say you had,” commented the border king grimly. “They don’t approve of such mercy.”

 

It was plain from the looks of the two Pawnees who were guarding the brave that they did not. 

 

Their fingers clutched their tomahawks with a nervous grip, as though they yearned⁷ to send the 

 

deadly weapons crashing into the skull⁸ of the captive.

 

The Shawnee looked up beseechingly⁹ into the face of the border king. He was evidently afraid to 

 

die, and he knew that his fate rested in the hands of the renowned¹⁰ Long Hair.

 

“White Feather will tell the great chief about the paleface maidens¹¹ if he will spare his life,” 

 

he said. “He will tell how they were taken from Evil Heart and who took them.”

 

He spoke¹³ in his own tongue, which Buffalo Bill understood.

 

“That’s another matter,” replied the king of the scouts¹⁴. “Let White Feather speak straight 

 

words and tell me all I want to know, and he shall not only have his life, but he shall go free. 

 

He is not a warrior¹⁶ we need fear.”

 

The Shawnee was too nervous for himself to resent or even notice the last cutting remark. He 

 

plunged¹⁷ into his story eagerly.

 

It appeared that the Shawnees had fled from the wrecked¹⁸ wagon¹⁹ train because one of their scouts 

 

had signaled the approach of a strong war party of Utes, far outnumbering their own. As the Utes, 

 

like the Apaches, had their hands against almost all the other tribes, Evil Heart had feared to 

 

meet them.

 

The Utes had not seen them, apparently²⁰, but they had done all they could to hide their trail, 

 

without knowing that the white men were after them.

 

But, nevertheless, quite by accident, the war party of Utes had sighted them later on the prairie 

 

and ridden up to them, compelling them to halt. This explained the mystery of the two converging 

 

trails.

 

The Utes were under the command of a famous chief named Bear Killer²¹, and they were out on the 

 

warpath against the Snake Indians, having traveled far from their own lodges²² for that purpose.

 

Bear Killer and Evil Heart had held a palaver²⁴, the result of which was that the Ute chief had 

 

demanded that the two white maidens should be handed over to him as the price of his letting the 

 

Shawnees go on their way without a fight.

 

Evil Heart had been loath²⁵ to grant this, but his braves had prevailed on him to do so, for the 

 

Utes so far outnumbered them that a battle would have meant their almost certain extermination²⁶.

 

The Ute chief had ridden away with his followers²⁷, saying that he would hunt for the Snakes, and 

 

after he had vanquished²⁸ them he would return to his home far across the great mountains, and make 

 

the eldest²⁹ white maiden¹² his squaw, while his brother, who was with his war party, would take the 

 

other to his lodge²³.

 

This was valuable information, and Buffalo Bill did not grudge³⁰ the captive his liberty as the 

 

price of it.

 

Grateful at having saved his life, even at the price of showing cowardice³¹, White Feather departed 

 

on foot to seek the lodges of his people.

 

Buffalo Bill gave the word to ride as swiftly as possible back to the point where the Utes had 

 

met the Shawnees.

 

When they got there the scouts scattered³² around and examined the tracks carefully in order to 

 

estimate the strength of the Utes as nearly as they could.

 

The result was to show that it was a party of such strength as it seemed almost foolish to try to 

 

tackle.

 

While they were busy in this work Wild Bill heard a low moan coming from a small clump³³ of bushes 

 

near by. He called Buffalo Bill to him, and together they hastened to the spot.

 

There they found a man lying on the prairie. He had been staked out on the ground, so that he 

 

would perish of hunger and thirst.

 

Buffalo Bill cut him loose, helped him to his feet, revived him with a drink, and asked:

 

“How long have you been here?”

 

“About five hours, I reckon, pard.”

 

“Who did it?”

 

“Utes.”

 

“A large party?”

 

“No.”

 

“Any white girls in it?”

 

“No.”

 

“How many braves?”

 

“Ten.”

 

“That can’t be Bear Killer’s gang,” said Buffalo Bill, turning to Wild Bill.

 

“There are Utes all over the country,” said the rescued man. “Several bands. They are spread 

 

all over, looking for the Snakes.”

 

“I know you now,” remarked Buffalo Bill, looking keenly at the man. “You are Steve Hathaway. 

 

You used to be a government scout¹⁵, but you turned outlaw³⁴.”

 

“That’s right, Buffalo Bill,” said Hathaway, who was an old man, hanging his head in shame. “

 

But I’ve got tired of the life and want to be an honest and decent man again. I joined the Death 

 

Riders, but I couldn’t stand for their ways, so I left ’em at the risk of my life, an’ I was 

 

trying to reach the settlements when the Utes caught me.”

 

“If you want to turn over a new leaf, I’ll do all I can to help you, Steve,” said the 

 

chivalrous³⁵ knight³⁶ of the plains. “You used to be a good man in the old days. Now, listen:

 

“We are chasing the Utes to recover two white girls. If they are as numerous as you say we shall 

 

want help. I am going to send a man to Fort McPherson to ask for a troop of cavalry³⁷. Will you go 

 

and guide them to me? I will send two scouts back later on to meet you and help to direct you.”

 

“Sure, pard,” replied Steve. “There’s nothing I’d like to do better. If you will trust me I 

 

won’t betray your trust. You have saved my life, and it is yours. I will go to Fort McPherson 

 

and bring the troopers along, or die in the attempt.”

 

Hathaway stopped only to eat and drink a little, and then, being supplied with a horse, he rode 

 

off to the fort.

 

When, after some hard riding, he reached there, he gave the commandant a letter with which 

 

Buffalo Bill had intrusted him, explaining the nature of the situation.

 

“Order Captain Meinhold and Company B to go at once,” said the commandant to his adjutant. 

 

“They are the boys for this kind of work. Tell Captain Meinhold to spare no effort to bring the 

 

girls back. That is the first consideration. Even the punishment of the Indians is a secondary 

 

matter.”

1 shrubs   

灌木( shrub的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gardener spent a complete morning in trimming those two shrubs. 园丁花了整个上午的时间修剪那两处灌木林。
• These shrubs will need more light to produce flowering shoots. 这些灌木需要更多的光照才能抽出开花的新枝。

2 promptly   

adv.及时地，敏捷地

参考例句：

• He paid the money back promptly.他立即还了钱。
• She promptly seized the opportunity his absence gave her.她立即抓住了因他不在场给她创造的机会。

3 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

4 distinguished   

adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的

参考例句：

• Elephants are distinguished from other animals by their long noses.大象以其长长的鼻子显示出与其他动物的不同。
• A banquet was given in honor of the distinguished guests.宴会是为了向贵宾们致敬而举行的。

5 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

6 amazement   

n.惊奇，惊讶

参考例句：

• All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
• He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。

7 yearned   

渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The people yearned for peace. 人民渴望和平。
• She yearned to go back to the south. 她渴望回到南方去。

8 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

9 beseechingly   

adv. 恳求地

参考例句：

• She stood up, and almost beseechingly, asked her husband,'shall we go now?" 她站起身来，几乎是恳求似地问丈夫：“我们现在就走吧？”
• Narcissa began to cry in earnest, gazing beseechingly all the while at Snape. 纳西莎伤心地哭了起来，乞求地盯着斯内普。

10 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

11 maidens   

处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球

参考例句：

• stories of knights and fair maidens 关于骑士和美女的故事
• Transplantation is not always successful in the matter of flowers or maidens. 花儿移栽往往并不成功，少女们换了环境也是如此。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

12 maiden   

n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的

参考例句：

• The prince fell in love with a fair young maiden.王子爱上了一位年轻美丽的少女。
• The aircraft makes its maiden flight tomorrow.这架飞机明天首航。

13 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

14 scouts   

侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员

参考例句：

• to join the Scouts 参加童子军
• The scouts paired off and began to patrol the area. 巡逻人员两个一组，然后开始巡逻这个地区。

15 scout   

n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索

参考例句：

• He was mistaken for an enemy scout and badly wounded.他被误认为是敌人的侦察兵，受了重伤。
• The scout made a stealthy approach to the enemy position.侦察兵偷偷地靠近敌军阵地。

16 warrior   

n.勇士，武士，斗士

参考例句：

• The young man is a bold warrior.这个年轻人是个很英勇的武士。
• A true warrior values glory and honor above life.一个真正的勇士珍视荣誉胜过生命。

17 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

18 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

19 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

20 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

21 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

22 lodges   

v.存放( lodge的第三人称单数 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属

参考例句：

• But I forget, if I ever heard, where he lodges in Liverpool. 可是我记不得有没有听他说过他在利物浦的住址。 来自辞典例句
• My friend lodges in my uncle's house. 我朋友寄居在我叔叔家。 来自辞典例句

23 lodge   

v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆

参考例句：

• Is there anywhere that I can lodge in the village tonight?村里有我今晚过夜的地方吗？
• I shall lodge at the inn for two nights.我要在这家小店住两个晚上。

24 palaver   

adj.壮丽堂皇的；n.废话，空话

参考例句：

• We don't want all that palaver,do we?我们不想那样小题大做，不是吗？
• Progress is neither proclamation nor palaver.进步不是宣言，也不是空谈。

25 loath   

adj.不愿意的；勉强的

参考例句：

• The little girl was loath to leave her mother.那小女孩不愿离开她的母亲。
• They react on this one problem very slow and very loath.他们在这一问题上反应很慢，很不情愿。

26 extermination   

n.消灭，根绝

参考例句：

• All door and window is sealed for the extermination of mosquito. 为了消灭蚊子，所有的门窗都被封闭起来了。 来自辞典例句
• In doing so they were saved from extermination. 这样一来却使它们免于绝灭。 来自辞典例句

27 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

28 vanquished   

v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制

参考例句：

• She had fought many battles, vanquished many foes. 她身经百战，挫败过很多对手。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I vanquished her coldness with my assiduity. 我对她关心照顾从而消除了她的冷淡。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

29 eldest   

adj.最年长的，最年老的

参考例句：

• The King's eldest son is the heir to the throne.国王的长子是王位的继承人。
• The castle and the land are entailed on the eldest son.城堡和土地限定由长子继承。

30 grudge   

n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做

参考例句：

• I grudge paying so much for such inferior goods.我不愿花这么多钱买次品。
• I do not grudge him his success.我不嫉妒他的成功。

31 cowardice   

n.胆小，怯懦

参考例句：

• His cowardice reflects on his character.他的胆怯对他的性格带来不良影响。
• His refusal to help simply pinpointed his cowardice.他拒绝帮助正显示他的胆小。

32 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

33 clump   

n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走

参考例句：

• A stream meandered gently through a clump of trees.一条小溪从树丛中蜿蜒穿过。
• It was as if he had hacked with his thick boots at a clump of bluebells.仿佛他用自己的厚靴子无情地践踏了一丛野风信子。

34 outlaw   

n.歹徒，亡命之徒；vt.宣布…为不合法

参考例句：

• The outlaw hid out in the hills for several months.逃犯在山里隐藏了几个月。
• The outlaw has been caught.歹徒已被抓住了。

35 chivalrous   

adj.武士精神的；对女人彬彬有礼的

参考例句：

• Men are so little chivalrous now.现在的男人几乎没有什么骑士风度了。
• Toward women he was nobly restrained and chivalrous.对于妇女，他表现得高尚拘谨，尊敬三分。

36 knight   

n.骑士，武士；爵士

参考例句：

• He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
• A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。

37 cavalry   

n.骑兵；轻装甲部队

参考例句：

• We were taken in flank by a troop of cavalry. 我们翼侧受到一队骑兵的袭击。
• The enemy cavalry rode our men down. 敌人的骑兵撞倒了我们的人。